Why are women at high breast cancer risk not having supplemental MRI screening?

New Rochelle, NY, March 19, 2018–Women at high lifetime breast cancer risk might benefit from breast MRI screening in addition to routine mammography, but a new study shows that breast MRI is greatly underutilized even though access is widely available. The study of more than 422,000 women is published in Journal of Women's Health, a peer-reviewed publication from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the Journal of Women's Health website.

Christoph Lee, MD, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, and a team of researchers coauthored the study entitled "Underutilization of Supplemental MRI Screening Among Patients at High Breast Cancer Risk." They reported that while nearly 44% of women at high (>20%) lifetime breast cancer risk had mammography performed at a facility with on-site breast MRI screening available, only 6.6% of the high-risk women underwent breast MRI screening.

"Breast MRI screening may benefit women with a high lifetime risk of breast cancer through earlier cancer detection," says Susan G. Kornstein, MD, Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Women's Health, Executive Director of the Virginia Commonwealth University Institute for Women's Health, Richmond, VA, and President of the Academy of Women's Health. "A greater understanding is needed of why this widely available resource is not being fully utilized to screen high-risk women."

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Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Institutes of Health under Award Number P01CA154292. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

About the Journal

Journal of Women's Health, published monthly, is a core multidisciplinary journal dedicated to the diseases and conditions that hold greater risk for or are more prevalent among women, as well as diseases that present differently in women. Led by Editor-in-Chief Susan G. Kornstein, MD, Executive Director of the Virginia Commonwealth University Institute for Women's Health, Richmond, VA, and President of the Academy of Women's Health, the Journal covers the latest advances and clinical applications of new diagnostic procedures and therapeutic protocols for the prevention and management of women's healthcare issues. Complete tables of content and a sample issue may be viewed on the Journal of Women's Health website. Journal of Women's Health is the official journal of the Academy of Women's Health and the Society for Women's Health Research.

About the Academy

Academy of Women's Health is an interdisciplinary, international association of physicians, nurses, and other health professionals who work across the broad field of women's health, providing its members with up-to-date advances and options in clinical care that will enable the best outcomes for their women patients. The Academy's focus includes the dissemination of translational research and evidence-based practices for disease prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of women across the lifespan.

About the Publisher

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers is a privately held, fully integrated media company known for establishing authoritative peer-reviewed journals in many promising areas of science and biomedical research, including LGBT Health, Transgender Health, Population Health Management, and Breastfeeding Medicine. Its biotechnology trade magazine, GEN (Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News), was the first in its field and is today the industry's most widely read publication worldwide. A complete list of the firm's 80 journals, books, and newsmagazines is available on the Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers website.